Helix

Helix Dance was founded in 2005 with a clear vision. “I started making work,” states founder and artistic director Isobel Cohen, “When my mother (an incredibly bright, articulate and accomplished woman) admitted she had not understood a single piece in which I had performed.” An incredibly passionate choreographer and thinker, Cohen’s programme at the Fringe this year grapples with familiar subjects and themes, using dance to re-imagine the mundane and exotic.

Cohen is concerned with demonstrating how dance can be both accessible and experimental. “For instance, The Great Escape, which is the piece I am performing at Latitude and in Edinburgh, is essentially a short character comedy set illustrated with dance,” she explains. “However, as I experiment with the way I make work, I find I am inviting more, and different, collaborators into the studio with me.”

In this, Cohen has taken up the real challenge of experimental performance: how can radical stage strategy be used to directly involve audiences? Dance is frequently ignored by the mainstream of theatre, yet it is capable of the most exact communication with the audience. Cohen is critical of the attitude displayed by both the traditionalists and many radicals.

“Occasionally, someone gives a nod to contemporary dance in theatre, in the form of an ill advised 'dance break,'” she notes. “But mostly we still seem to be trying to re-invent ourselves as an extension of social work, in the absence of any real interest from either direction of bringing us into the mainstream.” Identifying the socially worthy efforts of many companies, Cohen is making a claim, instead, for dance that does not rely on an idea of relevance for its meaning; a claim backed up by her four pieces that will grace the festival.

"Only one of the four pieces at Edinburgh is my work: the comedy sketch," she clarifies. "I have curated a mixed bill with other artists, in direct response to my experience last year of bringing a 35 minute work based on Dorian Gray to the Pleasance. Not only did I find that dance is a hard sell at the Fringe, but also that the dance shows which worked were unapologetically “dancy”: high energy, fun and accessible, and it became clear, at least in terms of Edinburgh, that I was going to have to adapt or die. The mixed bill is intended to show the range of possibility for dance, but the framework of four fifteen-minute pieces will hopefully entice more people to take the risk in watching it."

Aside from her own The Great Escape, the programme includes a tale of spousal homicide (Where the Humans Eat by Shahla Tarrant), All Ends in Tears (by Alex Broadie, which has been described as a musical theatre Fight Club and I’ve been waiting...), and Steve Johnstone’s Off the Map - a trio which examines the relentless desire to impress those around you.

The hip musical choices affirm Helix’s genuine awareness of the world beyond dance. "Music in this show includes Jont Mark (see Orange Unlit - it's an interesting premise) Sens Unik, Sparklehorse, Rameau and Fink."
More than this, the subjects - disgruntled relationships, loneliness and machismo - are a far cry from the usual self-referential nonsense that excuses some avant-garde choreography.

“On a simplistic level, I think contemporary dance is all too often incomprehensible, and suffers from being far too pleased with its own cleverness, obscurity, metatextuality, etc, etc, ad nauseam.” It might be radical, says Cohen, but that doesn’t excuse unpopularity. “If an entire audience walks out of the theatre saying 'I didn't get it' or 'I'm sure it was very good, but it went over my head' then there's a strong possibility that you are making poor work, and excusing it on the grounds of being cerebral.” Her own intentions are more straightforward. “I want to tell stories, and I'll use any means at my disposal.”

One of these means is crossing boundaries. She integrates music and text, and, arguably, politics. "Not in the case of The Great Escape, but you're right in that my work is moving towards a politicised intention," she replies. Her approach to movement is a blend that has carefully developed over time into a coherent whole. “Historically, the interdisciplinary approach in my work has been represented by the amount of text I use. Longer term, I think I will continue to look at adaptations and versioning of existing texts, so that I would describe the finished product more as theatre with a strong movement aesthetic, than dance.”

This search for a new genre - or jumping across the barriers between art forms - does not come merely from an aesthetic perspective, but from Cohen’s perception of dance’s problems. She complains that “We've also been pretty unsuccessful as an art form about cross-fertilisation of audiences, and I think most of the work is still only being seen by dance aficionados. This lack of audiences translates into lack of investment overall, and means we are evolving as an art form and an industry at a glacial speed.” Furthermore, she looks to Europe for inspiration, rather than the staid British tradition.

“To be honest, I don't think much of most of the British dance scene as it stands, and I am much more heavily influenced by the work of European dance and theatre makers. Michael Keegan - Dolan's Giselle came as a real revelation, and I remember seeing Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Tempus Fugit in Vienna and thinking it was one of the maddest and most extraordinary things I had ever seen. If we throw into the mix Yasmeen Godder’s (Israeli, but based in NYC) Gecko, Jo Stromgren's Convent and The Hospital, Rufus Norris' production of Vernon God Little at the Young Vic, the recent production of The 39 Steps, plus the New International Encounter trilogy from two years ago at the Pleasance and we're getting warm on the kind of work I love best.”

Given her restless imagination, and enthusiasm for addressing new audiences, it is no surprise that Helix Dance have been chosen to perform at Latitude, the only Festival that is really trying to escape the cliché of bands and bad bogs.

“I sought out Tania Harrison, the arts programmer, and persuaded her to come and see my work, because I love the festival and I wanted to perform there. I think it's extraordinary that the UK has managed to produce an arts and music festival in which the arts are as important as the music. Last year, Sigur Ros were headlining, so that pretty much made my year. I am very excited about the theatre and literary programming, so even if I wasn't performing, I would still have bought a ticket. I also think it's brilliant that I'm in the Cabaret Arena, along with New Art Club, because it means that our work has cross-over potential, which is exactly what I want.”

Cohen’s passion for her work, her sense of dance’s untapped potential and her willingness to take intellectual and theatrical risks is inspiring: a step out of the ordinary, Helix push themselves into new arenas, new material, gradually forging a distinctive and aggressive body of work.